Hey folks, Harry here with the latest DVD Picks & Peeks! Some really great material this week, some awesome titles! Some questionable releases to warn you on and more. As usual, the images and titles link over to Amazon where you can get more info on the release or can go ahead and purchase it, which helps in a small way to keep this column going. So thank you, this is a lot of fun to put together every week.

The film that guaranteed my heterosexuality. DRESSED TO KILL begins with the most awesomely gratuitous Angie Dickinson shower scene of all time. DePalma chose to have a body double sub for some particularly awesome closeups with the pinkest most luscious nipples you ever have seen. Thanks to the magnificent lens of Ralf D. Bode (R.I.P.) This BluRay is flat out gorgeous to behold. I’ve seen DRESSED TO KILL in shitty quality for a goodly portion of my life. I had this in VHS throughout my teenage years – now – you can buy the DVD for over $11 more than this Blu-Ray – which comes loaded with these extras:

Unrated Cut Blu-ray

The Making of Dressed to Kill Documentary Including Interviews with Brian De Palma, Angie Dickinson, Nancy Allen, Dennis Franz and More!

Unrated, R-Rated and TV-Rated Comparison Featurette

Slashing Dressed to Kill Featurette

An Appreciation by Keith Gordon Featurette

Animated Photo Gallery

Theatrical Trailer

The Unrated cut is definitely worth your eyes. Both of em. Everyone is great in this… I love that in many ways – this film is a bit of a foreshadow of HARRY POTTER – only the kid in this is way cooler – and his Hermione, played by Nancy Allen… well… watch – you tell me which you’d rather live out. My money is on DRESSED TO KILL!!!

OH – and the best special feature? When the film finishes playing, it just repeats – because that is exactly how everyone feels that watches this fantastic movie. Let’s watch it again!

I love Matthew Vaughn’s relaunch of the X-MEN franchise – and I’m pretty sure this is close to being my favorite X-MEN film to date… although X-MEN 2 keeps telling me it loves me more, and I have been caught cheating on X-MEN FIRST CLASS with X2 a couple of times since its release. But the period setting, the more X-MEN evocative costumes and well, the performances from McAvoy and Fassbender – just completely won me over. Now the Blu Ray has Deleted Scenes, an 8part Featurette, a making of and THE ISOLATED SCORE!!! For those of you like me that just loves having Isolated Scores! But then – none of you need me to tell you to pick this up, you’ve clicked already!

I saw this film on the summer break between Junior High and my freshman year of High School. Watching Humphrey Bogart’s brilliant performance as Captain Queeg, it made me sign up for THEATER ARTS for my 1st Elective of High School – and yes… I did perform the final testimony of Captain Queeg to a thundering classroom applause… Yes, I dearly love THE CAINE MUTINY for personal sentimental reasons, but behind all of that is a brilliant film produced by Stanley Kramer and directed by the great Edward Dmytryk and starring a truly fantastic cast – in particular I love Fred MacMurray’s absolute coward character, that I just love. Such a fucking douche. One of the great cinematic asstards! But Bogie is the star here. He takes a touch of the madness we loved in TREASURE OF SIERRE MADRE, but tempers it with something entirely new. Easily one of my favorite Bogart fims, mainly because it is so different from the roles we think of when we think of Bogart. Here, he isn’t playing likable or charming. Rather he plays a man you love to loathe – and it’s brilliant. I didn’t get this disc in advance of release, but being that its one of my favorite flicks, I’ll be adding it shortly!

Joe Wright’s HANNA is still one of my favorite films of the year. Watching Saoirse Ronan play pretty much the exact opposite of her role in LOVELY BONES was… invigorating. I love that this is very much a comic book superhero origin film. By the end of the movie, you’ll probably crave, like me, the further adventures of HANNA. Every character introduced in this film is compelling and electric. Joe Wright breaks out of the corset flicks and pretty convincingly shows us all that he can do, just about anything. I mean, he made Saoirse the scariest little wisp of a girl that I’ve seen on film – although I’d wager that HitGirl could totally take her. What say you? Film looks gorgeous on Blu!

I’ve enjoyed the two previous seasons, and I’m looking forward to diving into the third, I’ve heard that it is really great. I have it sitting here, I just haven’t dove in quite yet. As with the two previous seasons’ releases they have a lot of extras waiting on you. Here they are:

Now I only have two complaints about this $35 release… the Collector cards are fucking ridiculous and the original Howard Hawks SCARFACE is on a Standard Def DVD included. That would have been truly spectacular – had it been a 1080p Blu Ray extra… But the reality is that the only thing any of you really care about with this release is the DePalma flick… and SCARFACE is fantastic. Absolutely gorgeous. The sound is amazing. LOVE THIS DISC! This movie is just electrifying to watch. One of those perfect iconic films. Like the greatest of gangster movies there are moments in this film of pure cinematic ejaculation – where the screen explodes into your living room and Pacino has your absolute most riveted of attention. That this film has become the fashion of a particularly bizarre sub-culture of film geeks… Well, it kind of delights me. I just wish the culture of us PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE lovers was HOT TOPIC worthy! To see DEATH RECORDS shirts and Phantom masks and Garrett Graham outfits for sale. Well it’d be amazing. However, this next thing… it’s kind of the coolest & most ludicrous SPECIAL BLU RAY SET.

Marked down from $999.99 to a mere $699.99 – is this kind of awesome SCARFACE collectible Humidor. Now – I know out there – there are those of you, for whom, SCARFACE is your absolute favorite movie ever made. I can respect that, because – it is one fucking helluva movie. This movie has more attitude than any other movie I’ve ever seen. Pacino essentially created the craziest accent ever to imitate. The mountain of coke? The fucking chainsaw? And say you’re the kind of guy that likes to smoke an illegally attained Cuban cigar…. Whilst you watch SCARFACE with your friends or that lady that makes you feel like Tony Montana by grooming your awesome mountain of coke on your desk. Well, shit. You kind of have to have this SCARFACE Humidor because you’re the fucking man! Here’s how AMAZON describes this crazy set:

"Inspired by the modern-day classic from acclaimed director Brian De Palma (Carlito's Way) and Oscar-winning writer Oliver Stone (Born on the Fourth of July), the Limited Edition Scarface Humidor is handcrafted by the world renowned Daniel Marshall for the ultimate collector and cigar enthusiast. A decadent collector's item limited to only 1,000 pieces worldwide, it pays tribute to Academy Award winner Al Pacino's (The Godfather) stunning portrayal of Tony "Scarface" Montana, one of the most ruthless gangsters ever depicted on film.

The humidor's exterior is hand painted and polished with Marshall's trademark ""1000"" coat brilliant finish, and its interior is made of untreated Spanish cedar complete with an analog hygrometer, guaranteed to properly condition and age approximately 100 cigars at optimal humidity levels. Expertly fitted with brass hinges in exemplary Daniel Marshall style and embellished with a custom medallion inspired by the iconic film, each humidor carries a numbered plaque, a certificate of authenticity with the designer's signature, and the Limited Edition Scarface Blu-ray encased in collectible SteelBook packaging with a digital copy of the film, a DVD of the 1932 version of Scarface plus 10 original art cards. The action-packed Blu-ray features an all-new eye-popping remastered picture, explosive 7.1 audio track and never-before-seen bonus features."

One of the many reasons I absolutely love Dustin Hoffman – and absolutely would love to see him in a tough role like this again – is that he completely owns it in films like this and MARATHON MAN. It’s hard to think of Dustin Hoffman as a badass. He is just… such a small guy. But like Cagney, when you fucking push Dustin Hoffman… well, the original promotion for STRAW DOGS had it right, you will see DUSTIN HOFFMAN EXPLODE! And that’s a great thing. NOW – why do you need this on Blu Ray? Because Susan George is something to see in this movie. In this, MANDINGO and DIRTY MARY CRAZY LARRY, Susan just has something magical happening with her and the emulsion of film itself that just makes her crazy, hot and irresistible to love on camera. This is one of Peckinpah’s great films. And if you haven’t seen it – you really owe to yourself to see it, before you see the remake. This is a perfect film. Some pretty great sweater yams too. This film is just kind of amazing to watch. It deals with some incredibly harsh subject matter – Sam plays with the audience – and I feel he stays classy throughout. The film is intense – if you have problems with Home Invasion or movies that portray rape… this is not a film for you. For me, what makes this film so great is just watching Dustin. He’s amazing in this film. Just amazing.

Before you roll your eyes at me – thinking that I’m an old fart lost in the nostalgia of his childhood, this is a TV show that had no regular cast, but featured stars like Ed Asner, Angie Dickinson, Kurt Russell, Lloyd Bridges and Dean Stockwell. While also having folks like Sylvester Stallone, William Shatner, Jim Brown, Antonio Fargas, Chuck Connors, Patty Duke, Robert Culp, Robert Stack, John Forsythe, JERRY LEE LEWIS, Sal Mineo, Vic Morrow, John Saxon, George Hamilton, Jan Michael Vincent and so many others – dropping in on this Brilliant 70’s Cop show brought to us by Joseph Wambaugh - the ex-cop writer of THE ONION FIELD and several other crime novels, films and TV shows. If you love 70’s Crime films – you’ll love this show. ENJOY!

Yoko and I have an absolute sick addiction to laughing at the “investigations” of these three SERIOUS INVESTIGATORS of the ‘hauntings’ they commonly find and expose. We do imitations of all 3 and we cackle through the episodes – because… the leaps these guys make with their “evidence” is just hysterical. Amongst the finest comedies on Television. Otherwise, it’s the scariest shit anywhere – because these guys make Bowery Boys in SPOOK CHASERS look professional! The one thing I would really really, like total wetdream extra – that I wish this show had would be a running commentary by Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, Ernie Hudson and Bill Murray in character as Stantz, Spengler, Zeddmore and Venkman. I really can’t imagine anything funnier.

Every indication I have about this release is that it is the same master that we got back in like 2008 when Anchor Bay first put out HELLRAISER on Blu. If so – that’s a fairly handsomely put together disc. That Blu had 5.1 lossless sound and a pretty damn fine image. Preview discs have yet to be seen on this.

Now this is the disc I’m waiting for with great anticipation. Unlike the previous disc, this is the first time HELLBOUND is coming to Blu Ray – and as a huge fan of Pinhead – this sequel is just spectacularly original and gore-gous. Grand Guignol has never quite been this grand. The film absolutely disturbs me and thrills me all at once. Again – I have not seen preview discs of this release – and I haven’t heard of anyone who has. But this is one of the great horror sequels in history – and it deserves to be done up proper with all the frills. We all find out tomorrow!

This is such a tragic film. There’s humor to it, for sure… but I just couldn’t get past just how sad Will Ferrell’s character is in this film. He’s such a clusterfuck at the beginning & majority of this movie, that I just can’t imagine how he ever had his shit together to lose what he loses at the beginning of this film. He just seems utterly broken and lost. That’s what losing your jobyou’re your wife & home all in the same day will do to you. Now, I’m in a completely loving and awesome marriage as I watched this – and just the natural empathy that I watch films with… just put me in such a funk watching this film… trying to imagine how one could so completely lose everything in their life. The notion of having to start over from complete scratch… well, this isn’t a comedy, but a HORROR film for the happily married man out there. You have been warned. It really is excellent – but man – this situation would just completely suck.

This is a pretty unrelenting and nasty little horror film from Wes Craven… A really great early work. This entire MIDNIGHT MADNESS SERIES is suspect though – there’s rumors that they’re DVD upscales instead of full on 1080p masters – so buyer beware on this and the above two HELLRAISER releases. I just really want them to be good releases – but I haven’t found any real positive or negative authoritative judgement on these releases. If this is a crappy release – shame on IMAGE.

OK - Just checked out the disc - It looks like crap. Very bad mastering. Lots of noise - Haven't seen the HELLRAISER 1 or 2 yet, but this scares me on those. This looks real bad. Like the worst of Netflix streaming.

Paul Greengrass’ UNITED 93 is an absolutely riveting film. I rewatched this the other night on Blu and couldn’t look away. The end just kills me. But everything about this film is just… handled with such a brutal sense of just… this is all happening. The film is an exercise in dread anticipation. As each thing plays out – you know there’s no happiness here – this is a tragic moment in U.S. history – the struggle for life that was UNITED 93 is a painful reminder of just how exposed we all felt that day. It is a great tragedy and Greengrass made it a great film. Very strong BluRay release.

I gave my copy of this to Ernie Cline before he began his epic READY PLAYER ONE book tour that he is doing in his ECTO88. I know of no man with half the passion for AIRWOLF as my friend Mr. Cline. From the road, he told me that the AIRWOLF movie is essentially a longer version of the original AIRWOLF pilot – which he told me “has more AIRWOLF, thus making AIRWOLF more AIRWOLF” so basically Mr. Cline says this is more Airwolf than AIRWOLF – so… that means perfection is more perfect. That cool is more cool. That AIRWOLF is more AIRWOLF – and that my friends is AIRWOLF!

There are simply not nearly enough Carole Lombard films – and while Cary Grant had a full and long lived career – I kind of feel the same about him. Grant and Lombard are a pair of the finest actors of their time – and this is just a fantastic romantic melodrama. One of the very bests. Directed by John Cromwell, a director you don’t hear nearly enough about, but who directed great films like SCANDAL SHEET, OF HUMAN BONDAGE, the wonderful Colman version of THE PRISONER OF ZENDA and so many others. Like Mitchum in THE RACKET or Bogie in the original DEAD RECKONING. This is another fantastic film from Cromwell’s filmography – give it a shot, you’ll be glad you did.

Also out via the Midnight Madness series – but only upon DVD and at a handsome ransom of under $9 – is HOUSE. I love this film, but I love the sequel even more. William Katt was a fave of mine from THE GREATEST AMERICAN HERO – and seeing him and Norm together was a treat – but then Night Court’s Richard Moll really steals the show – along with the very imaginative visual effects – which Tippett took to a whole other level in THE SECOND STORY. A cheap DVD release of a movie that needs a showy remastering on Blu Ray. But it looks like we still have quite a wait for us fans of the series.

Here – the series takes a noted turn into horror fantasy in an extreme way. I’d love a Blu of this – just because I love Phil Tippett’s stop-motion work that I love from this film! If you’re a fan of Bill Maher – it is kind of awesome to watch him in this flick – along with Cliff from CHEERS. This is pure fun horror for the kids. If you want good laughing spooked kids – this is a really fun one. This was a real delight to discover in the shithole mall theater that I originally saw it in, but just like then… I’m picking this up because at age 11, my nephew is perfect for HOUSE II and HOUSE. He’ll love these movies!

This is an absolutely fantastic Serial Killer flick. It stars cult star on the rise, AJ Bowen and this is a film that goes in directions you never anticipate. This is a superior indie horror film, one that audiences at Fantastic Fest really enjoyed. AJ is putting together a host of really damn fine performances in a whole bunch of indie horror films, it’s a very frightening world. Disturbing and solid.

Honestly – this really didn’t work at all for me… A Roman / Martial Arts epic – how can it miss? Well, I didn’t have a single character to really get invested in – and the spectacle is a lot of non-spectacular action that never serves to particularly elevate any moment beyond a state of mediocrity. Shame… I could have really loved a great East meets West ancient empires clashing kind of flick… but not this one.

Definitely don’t think about John Sayles’ flick when you put this in, because it’s real different. This is a a fascinating western about Texas the Republic. Gable plays a rancher in favor of Texas joining the Union and searching for Sam Houston. Broderick Crawford is a fanatical power mad individual that dreams of a TEXAS that rules North America. I kind of love that character – mainly because I’ve always loved power mad characters that want to rule their relative worlds – and this guy wants to make TEXAS a sovereign nation that would take all of America south of the Mason-Dixon line – and well… there’s still some Texans that are ready to do exactly that. As a Texan – I find this film completely amusing. Perhaps you will too.

I’ve been hearing amazing things about this Bollywood film for quite some time. I am dying to finally see it! This is apparently a thoroughly modern version of the kind of action flicks India put out in the 70’s & 80’s – but in a new fashion that people say is very kickass. I’m looking forward to checking this out!

I can't decide if I really liked Hanna or not. I may need to see it again. X-Men:FC was fantastic, and for me it was THE surprise of the summer. Scarface was a great movie until the rap & wannabe gansta community decided to adopt it as their mascot movie. Now it's tainted and commercialized. I'm waiting for some douchebag record producer to remake it.

So if they suck there's no need to wish shame on them or Starz.
Also, HANNA has really stuck with me since I saw it earlier this year. It's a pretty unique film and one that I can't wait to revisit. I'm afraid DRESSED TO KILL, SCARFACE, and HANNA will all be making their way to my shelf this week.
And my four year-old told me today that he wants to be the zombie soldier from HOUSE for Halloween this year. But even he knows HOUSE II is a piece of shit.

That only enhances the movies reputation: the fact that real life drug dealers respect it and can quote every line. You think Scarface is ruined by having a black criminal fanbase but those people can actually relate to themes of the movie. If anything they should be mad you like Scarface since the closest you ever came to selling a kilo of cocaine was playing Grand Theft Auto.

I mean, it makes sense why they chose to release it now, but that doesn't make it right.
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Then again, I don't think the film should have been made so close to the actual events, so I shouldn't be surprised by this.

But some of the stuff in there is soooo perfect. Ronan gives a great performance and the score is awesome.
They just needed to trim down the stuff with the hippy family and the final action sequence and the movie would be outstanding in spite of Blanchet's hammy performance.

Watched Hanna the other day . While I enjoyed it and thought the performances where very good . I couldn’t help thinking it was a retread of the Bourne films.
***SPOILER ALERT***
1.Protagonist is a special weapon trained / engineered to be the best .
2.Is unaware / cannot remember their origin .
3.Being chased by black ops government agents.
4.Said chases spanning Europe and North Africa
5.Frenetic , brutal fighting styles.
The list goes on .

the main theme was irritating...the music itself was fine, but it did not suit the film at all...
WTF? Same with Daft Punk..i thought the score for Tron was kinda weak and predictable..not their best music..
Basement Jaxx on the other hand did a great job for Attack the Block..
just coz you can pump out beats, doesn't mean you understand scoring..

The guy blows a load in his pants if a cat sneezes off camera. I truly hope he is not serious with this crap. And an EVP of a bug crossing the floor is NOT disturbing evidence of the dead reaching out to the living. Wow they really push it.

The guy blows a load in his pants if a cat sneezes off camera. I truly hope he is not serious with this crap. And an EVP of a bug crossing the floor is NOT disturbing evidence of the dead reaching out to the living. Wow they really push it.

I think the problem is not that maybe real criminals approve on it, but that stupid commercial bling bling wannabe gangsta rappers and their 13 year old fans pimp this shit as the true story of their lives!
This been said: Just because a movie or maybe your favourite band fell into the hands of the wrong fanbase, it doesn't mean you have to act like a hipster and disown it a piece of crap.

...and it blows they couldn't spring for a genuine high-def version to be included. I *like* the De Palma version, but as a fan of the director, I don't see much of his usual visual techniques in there...no split screens, no impossibly long, elaborate tracking shots...the movie is visually competent, but lacks the razzle-dazzle of his best work. Carlito's Way is the much better De Palma/Pacino gangster collaboration. The way the hip-hop community worships Scarface is far more frightening than anything in the movie. Tony Montana is the WORST ROLE-MODEL EVER, and yet these rappers and gangbangers all want to be exactly like him? Yes, he worked his way up from washing dishes to owning his own mansion with a swimming pool-sized bathtub, but at the expense of violently screwing over every single person in his life and being left utterly alone (not to mention getting a double-barrel shotgun blast in the back). Yeah, sign me up for some of that...!

I see that has also happened to The Big Lebowski and now every pothead jokester who saw it for the first time on Comedy Central after a South Park marathon thinks they're El Duderino.
fuck them and fuck the gangster wannabes who love Scarface.
But Im not blaming DePalma and Scarface for the gangster infatuation, which the homeys apparently havent seen in a long time, if at all. The full blame for the glorification can be rested on the shoulders of Mario Van Peebles and Nino Brown.

At least this movie has that.
Otherwise it's no where near as good as it's made out to be. I had heard all this great stuff about it before I first saw it, and when it was done I said to myself "that's it?".
Seriously, Scarface's quality level has been blown way out of proportion over the years. It's good, but too many people act like it's The Godfather.

You mentioned last week than you'd be talking about Transylvania 6-5000 this week. What happened? Why'd you drop it from your list, I was looking forward to it most this week.
It seems that it's only out on DVD on Amazon, which I really hope isn't true.

calling it mysoginist and a crime against women. Ah, those silly feminists.
Surprised Harry didn't mention the bravura museum sequence. DePalma's camerawork and editing is brilliant.
And it is kinda sad that DePalma is best known for one of his lesser works. Look at his entire body of work and Scarface, as good as it is, is not even in the top five IMO.

I like the style of the suspenseful and visual parts of that movie a lot. Used to really study it back in high school.
Oh, and Scarface is also great on a comedic level..."Put your finger in a dyke???"
It's also kind of satirical (in a non offensive way in my opinion) of any kind of modern 8-'s immigrant ethnicity. If you had cousins fresh of the boat in the 80's (whether you were Vietnamese, Indian, Brazilian... whatever) there are some background and personality details blown into cartoonish and funny proportions.
It's also quite disturbing in it's violence.
And for all you sound designers out there... Scarface might be that last big gang banger gun toting film that used old school stock gun shot sound effects. Even at that time, guns were being custom re-recorded in modern high fidelity, but Scarface contains some stock Hollywood gunshot sounds that sound more flat.

Chop, I might have had PHANTOM OF PARADISE in there if i'd seen it - now i'll have to!
I like DRESSED TO KILL and CARRIE a lot too, but they're kinda one watch movies for me. The other ones on my list I could watch repeatedly.

I have watched the movie a couple of times. I have seen the shower scene about 10 times. Harry is right about those perfect pink nipples. It is definitely one of De Palma's best. I am not a fan of his work overall, but I like this one.
Scarface is terribly overrated. It is an okay movie, at best. Carlito's Way is better. Sorry. It's the truth. The Untouchables is his best, bar none.
The Caine Mutiny is great. I got the DVD for Christmas last year. I just have one problem with it. That young couple is terrible. Their scenes together are painful to watch and remove us from the awesomeness that is Captain Queeg and the hush hushes around him. Fred MacMurray is a right cowardly bastard in it and he is great too, but Bogey owns it, as usual.
I have been having trouble deciding what my favorite movie of this summer was, but X-Men: First Class is definitely in the running. Other contenders are Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Captain America and yes, Bridesmaids. Fassbender was Fasstastic as Magneto. Jennifer Lawrence is becoming a force, and showed some hotness as well. There were issues with it that could have been avoided with a real reboot (having the real original X characters), but aside from that, it was pretty great.
House and House II were highly watched, fun, nonsense films from my childhood. I think I prefer House II as well.
Straw Dogs: That movie is mesed up. Peckinpah was a twisted bastard. Susan George, despite her messed up 70's British grillwork, is sexy as hell. Those sweaters of hers are hot. And, yes, she does enjoy it. Maybe not at first, but eventually. Peckinpah was sick.
I think there is no better time to release United 93. It is an emotional gut punch of a movie, beautifully made and realized. I would much rather watch the movie displaying the heroism of those passengers than watch any of those somber remembrances of people who are still living. United 93 is a testament to the bravery of those who died on that day. I own it on DVD and have watched it every 9/11 since it came out.

If hip hop artist/musician saw that movie first before 'Scarface' it would have been just as influential but there has not been one decent copy or release of the movie except the edited version from Celestial pictures...

Of course, I liked Scarface as many of you, but it's not the end all to be all of Gangster films.
That credit goes to Goodfellas if not the first Godfather film.
However, SF has memorable lines like "say hello to my little fwiend" and "I told you not to fuck me, you fucking little monkey"!
Good film,with a message (which many within the urban communities have overlooked unfortunately.) but I'll pick up a used copy thank you very much.

Yet I thought it was superior to the original, in terms of re-watchability. Kenneth Cranham is a legend. His end freaked me out.
House 1 was about the Vietnam Vet wasn't it? Whilst House 2 was about a couple of lads who uncover their dead grandfather?
I seem to remember House 3 was amazingly similar to Wes Craven's Shocker.

If you notice, a quick cut during the aforementioned rape scene shows Hoffman standing uselessly around while out hunting with the other scumbags. I think it was her suddenly being filled with absolute disgust over her brainiac pipsqueak of a husbands inability to watch out for her safety. In the process of her physical and psychological torture she uses her feelings of disdain to offset the horror she is experiencing and just surrender to the sexual assault almost as if to say, "Well, if this is going to happen and my worthless husband isn't around to stop it, I'm going to make it more painful to him by making him believe it was invigorating to be railed by a real man". Just my two cents. Completely unnecessary sequel has got me bummed. I believe they are even going to change the setting from a rural English countryside to (of course) some bucolic red state milieu. The predictable and boring Hollywood machine hums along.

For those of you that think X-Men is the only good pick this week, then you are far too young to care about film or you just don't give a shit. DePalma is well represented this week. I don't understand the recent banger worship of Scarface, but I do love that movie. Pacino was crazy brilliant in it. Dressed to Kill is also a gripping thriller. DePalma's early stuff is great fun to watch. It is Peckinpah's Straw Dogs that I react to the most this week. It is an excellent film, but the rape scene is brutally disturbing. It isn't particularly violent physically, but brutal nonetheless. I've only seen the film once, and once was enough. Sure to be better than the remake, right along with another Peckinpah remake - Killer Elite with James Caan and Robert Duvall. Talk about your badasses!!

Scarface is so over-the-top it's almost a spoof of gangster films. I guess if you can't cast one actual Cuban, you might as well make the cast all Italian. So laughable.
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I'm not in love with DePalma. I've heard interviews with him, and he comes off as rather intelligent. However, take away his aping of Hitchcock and not much is left. I feel he never developed his own film voice. He's just an echo of Hitchcock but in the wrong era.
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X-Men First Class was surprisingly good and easily the best X-Men film. Unfortunately, it's not a hard title to claim, as the previous X-Men films were rather dull. Magneto and Xavier are great, but the rest of the characters are rather bland. Shaw could be interesting but I feel his plot was rather lame and generic. And the rest of the Hellfire Club wasn't very inspiring. January Jones is a terribly, one-note actress and brought nothing to the role other than her chest. I liked a lot of the film and especially the outcome of the Magneto/Shaw showdown, but overall, the film felt a little too rushed, stagey, and overstuffed. And they ruined a perfectly good opportunity to completely restart the franchise with the original team. They've used up almost every decent mutant now and left themselves in a pickle. Better to just do an honest total reboot than try to dance between the raindrops.
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Haven't seen the House movies in decades. I loved the original but remember being let down by the sequel.
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Hanna was interesting and started out very well. Some really great cinematography and the lead looks stunning. However, I wanted a little more out of it. I felt like there was this huge buildup and then it just fizzled out. Hanna has such potential as a character and then just... doesn't do much after she escapes.
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Just finished season 2 of Fringe. I find the stand-alone episodes are generally better than the alternate universe stuff. I'm already bored with the alternate universe, so I fear for season 3. I also think the show started skipping over some of the actual hard science angle from season 1 and started focusing on more character drama. I think Akiva Goldsman's influence is coming into play there. Given the minds behind this show, I can't believe I enjoy it as much as I do.
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Hellbound? I was always upset the Cenobites get their asses handed to them so easily by the rookie. I lost tons of respect for them when the new guy defeats them with hardly any effort.
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Caine Mutiny is a classic. Bogart playing the bad guy? 'nuff said.
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Straw Dogs. I only saw this for the first time a few years ago. In a theater. I suppose I was expecting more, after having heard so much about it for so long. I guess I thought Hoffman's transformation would be a little less...frantic? He doesn't man up as much as become a spastic lunatic. I'll fault myself for having loftier expectations.

.....fucking Scarface is hysterical. horrible movie but fucking hysterical. can't really think of a movie as overated as Scarface. it's just bad in so many ways. if Pachinos accent is bad than Robert Loggias accent is a fucking crime against humanity.
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but anyway, Michelle Pfeiffer is fucking insanely hot. shes pretty much the only reason to see this movie beside the camp value of the horrible dialogue and the equally horrible accents speaking it.

That's kind of a ridiculous statement. It shows a sign of disagreement, whether it be with the majority or not. I don't think disagreeing with the majority is enough to make someone an "asshole". I think Scarface is an over the top slice of cheese and I don't understand the great love for it. I don't think me saying that makes me an asshole either. I just disagree with the majority of people on this site.

like real bad all day. i don't remember what i ate, but my ass has been killing me. i think my shit schedule has been messed up due to the long weekend. i took a massive shit this morning and again this afternoon...

"We are on the threshold of establishing the indispensable defense science of the next decade.
Professional paranormal investigations and eliminations. The franchise rights alone will make us rich beyond our wildest dreams." How right Venkman was.

It's like Hitch slammed a 2L of Mountain Dew and was like, "Fuck coherent story, motherfuckers, I want a dude in a dress slashing a hooker Nancy Allen! And let's get that evil douchey kid from Christine to be a teen gadget sleuth, only the story's going to shaft him by letting him show up for about 10 minutes of running time! YEAH! How about we make the killer incredibly predictable but shoot them in silhouette anyway even though the audience would have to be completely idiotic to not guess correctly? And then we'll tack on a balls-insane dream-sequence bullshit ending that makes no sense but it sure has titties!!!! YEAH!!!! TITTIES!!!!!
I guess what I'm saying is that it's a senseless piece of shit storytelling cribbed poorly from a far superior film that I regretted watching ONCE, let alone watching again immediately after.

House 2 was a giant turd sandwich. It was the first one that's the classic. And you call yourself a horror fan. William Katt, Nightcourt guy, but it was Norm from Cheers that stole the scenes in the original. Though Moll is awesome in those terrible Vietnam flashbacks

WHAT actual hard science angle? the whole show reeks of pseudoscience which even that is badly executed.
The only appeal of the show is Torv's beautiful face,the two Walters and their chemistry between them,and the whole impeding doom/mystery atmosphere.

For years I was going crazy that the home release was not the version that I saw in the theaters. Saw it in Washington DC at the KB Studio, Wisconsin and Ablemarle. Can anyone confirm that I am not going crazy.

Yet I think his performance was not bad.. It was not great, but for the Bacon it was the best he could do. His performance did not by no means take anything away from the movie. In fact for me it set up Fassbender's Magneto even more.
I think his evilness was nothing more than an assist and setup for Magneto. His German was a little distracting, but I think I found his non-German mentality a little over done. That seemed to be a theme this summer. "I'm with the Germans, but just using them to empower my own take-over-the-world ambitions." - something they got from Enterprise and countless others.

Hi Harry, long time reader.
I was happy to see you cover Singham. As you rightly point out, Singham goes back to the 70s style Bollywood. However there has been a resurgence of action movies in the recent years and Singham isn't the first. The trend in Bollywood (which is Hindi movies) started with Ghajini (based on Memento) and then Wanted, Dabangg and more recently Bodyguard. A slew of new films releasing this and early next year are also action movies.
The interesting fact is that many of these movies are remakes (inspired by) Hollywood and/or south asian movies. And sometimes south Indian movies (from the southern states of Andhra - telugu movies, and Tamil Nadu - tamil movies).

back in 1983 on Beta. Before real gangstas gloried it. We heard it was ultra violent, and had the chainsaw scene. We had to see it. It had the lure of a hard "R" fantasy movie. Which is really what it is.

Sadly it will be DePalma's most remembered film, when in all reality Blow Out should be it. ScarFace was the type of movie that was cool when you first watched it, but after so many years I can barely get through it anymore. The language is just to much for me, it just doesn't feel correct, it's like they cuss in the movie just to do it, kind of like the movie PAUL! Though there are other films like Pulp Fiction or The DUDE were it appears that the cussing makes the film flow better and doesn't seem out of place, besides I don't blame Brian for this, more like STONE, that dude is a hack! I'll pick The GodFather or Good Fellas over Scarface any day of the week. And it seems the only blu-ray I will be buying this week is X-Men: First Class! & HellRaiser 2 was great, when I was fourteen years old!

(Note: these are not necessarily New Releases, but films I saw recently)
Barney's Version (2010)
Once again Paul Giamatti proves that he is the most underrated actor working today with his excellent performance as Barney Panofsky, lovable shlub of a tv producer who may or may not also be a murderer. Let me not give you the wrong impression, Barney's Version is not a murder mystery of any sort, but the story of a man's life and loves and the sometimes sordid details as told from his perspective of events.
Basically, it is a love story between a shlub and a beautiful woman way out of his league who is too good for him. As great as Giamatti is, the real treat of the film is Rosamund Pike's performance as Miriam, the love of Barney's life. Who would have thought that the wooden Bond Girl from Die Another Day would have turned out to be such a great actress. You understand why Barney falls for her and why he goes to such extremes to woo her, because she is such the sweet perfect dream girl every man yearns for.
But, Barney is far from perfect and his various peccadilloes make up the comedic drama of the film. SPOILERS. In addition to Miriam, the film also chronicles Barney's two prior marriages, including his first wife who committed suicide shortly after the wedding. There is also an incident involving a gun where Barney's best friend goes missing after Barney catches him shlupping his second wife. The police suspect foul play, but with no body we are left to accept Barney's version that Boogie (the friend's name) went for a swim after they fought and never came back.
Of course, some day I would like to see Not Barney's Version in which Barney killed his first wife and best friend in fits of jealous rage. But that would be another movie and not the quirky love story and tragic comedy that Barney's version is.

I remember him being quite scary in The River Wild. In X Men I thought he worked well for the role. Sure he was obviously Kevin Bacon pretty much acting like Kevin Bacon; he is not a chameleon type actor like his The River Wild costar Meryl Streep. I suspect he is kind of a dick in real life. But I still thought he added more to the movie than he took away, and I liked the scenes that he was in.
Now to see if I can bittorrent The River Wild.

First of all, my brother and I stumbled into a little theater in Detroit to catch a double feature in the early '70s. I don't recall the second film, but the first was Sisters. The combination of Bernard Herrmann's score, DePalma's use of camera, editing and split screen, along with his sly wit (the game show Peeping Tom, could actually air nowadays), I was hooked.
Like a lot of the movie brats of the seventies, I worshipped the work of Hitchcock, and DePalma took the tricks and tools of the trade Hitchcock used, and made them anew.
Then came Phantom Of The Paradise (more sly wit), Obsession (another masterful Herrmann score), Carrie (still one of the best King adaptations), The Fury (Kael called it "Star Wars on acid", a beautiful mess with a signature slow motion escape sequence that is a thing of beauty AND a great John Williams score), his Psycho for the '80s Dressed To Kill (watch Michael Caine and his relationship with mirrors), his masterwork Blow Out, the funky Body Double, his solid with a capital S tv adapts of The Untouchables and Mission Impossible, the Vietnam War as a fevered dream of moral dilemma Casualties Of War (Michael J Fox and Sean Penn..a teaming that does work), the Roshamon-like Snake Eyes, Carlito's Way...and so on. Even his misfires like Raising Cain and Wise Guys are entertaining.
Scarface was entertaining in a Miami Vice before Miami Vice was made kind of way. It just seemed like he was a hired gun (no pun) for that film.

If you read my post carefully instead of having some knee-jerk reaction, you would know that I have no dislike for De Palma's/Pacino's 83' Gangster opus. However, as I have previously mentioned, how the urban culture embraced said film as if the protagonist (Tony Montana) was some fucking role model when actually it's more of a message film. "Don't get high form your own supply".LOL (No the real message of course is acheiving wealth through illegal means when trying to pursue the American Dream, can bite you in the ass. Hence, my overrated sentiment.
If anything, the film deserves props for it's potrayal of a modern day greek tragedy. Albiet Machiavellian closure.
Please, Son before you go off half cocked by posting three replies to my one lil' opinion, make sure you have all the facts first.
Comprende'?

I'm very glad toknow you also held CARLITO'S WAY in such high regard. It's a damn very good movie, and still quite underrated.
Also, it's cool that the hero of the movie has the same name as me. My name is also Carlos.

The show takes it's name form the term "fringe science". Fringe sicnece basically means new theoretical stuff that has been recently postulated but is yet to be fully proved and yet to be accepted in mainstream science.
But the fucking fuck asses who create the show look to be extremely ignorant of what their own show title means. It's made more then obvious in the opening titles sequence. In it they name ESP and Dark Matter as fringe science stuff. This is, of course, stupid and ignorant. Dark Matter is MAINSTREAM SCIENCE and it's so since the very early 1990s. Dark Matter just describes invisible stuff that's in our galaxy, probably all through the universe,which is there but we cant see directly, because it doesn't shine. Basically, it's stuff out there that are not stars and yet seem to make for about half the mass of the Milky Way. Because it dosn't shine we can't see it, and thus we discovered it's existence through inference, through indirect means, and that was, their gravitational influence. We don't know what Dark Matter realy is yet because, as i said before, we can't see it. Dark Matter can either me made of MACHOS or WIMPS. What Dark Matter is not is either a magical stuff that cna do whatever the plot needs to, or frienge science at all. It's mainstream.
ESP is bullshit. ESP is not fringe sciencde, it's PSEUDOSCIENCE. Those fuckcunts Oric, kurtzmana nd Abrams can call it whatever they fancy, but ESP is nothing to do with real science which fringe science is.
In fact, the whole fucking retard fucking show FRINGE should be called PSUEDO, because every fucking thing depicted in that piece of trash is all pseudoscience crap.
And wors,t the fuckign show is boring like fuck. I was never able to finish an episode, it always bores the shit out of me to no end. It has a very good trio of actors as leads, but that's where the good thing about the show ends. Like anything created from the braintrust of Orci, Kurtzman and Abrams, it suffers from a severe case of the retard.

I love Joe Wright's visuals as a filmmaker, but he had yet to tackle subject matter that I had an interest in(at the end of the day, I still loved "Atonement" in spite of this). So I was pretty excited to see him tackle a revenge thriller.
And I think he delivered. I was surprised to hear that the script for "Hanna" was on the black list twice, because I actually think the script is the weakest part of the movie. The premise is fairly generic, the "reveal" isn't handled very firmly or with much impact, and the script kind of meanders in the 2nd act. But, in spite of that, Joe Wright knocks it out of the park visually, the performances from Ronan, Bana, Blanchett and Tom Hollander are fucking TREMENDOUS, and you've gotta love that thumping Chemical Brothers score.
The subway fight/extended take scene wasn't as impressive as Joe Wright's single-take scene in "Atonement," but it was still fucking awesome. And I agree with Harry, I wouldn't mind seeing a sequel to this film, but it would absolutely have to be Ronan and Wright involved. Accept no substitutes.

It starts out promising enough, but wow, does it get bad. Probably the worst movie I saw in theaters this year. You should have heard some of the comments walking out of that theater. I wish I would have seen anything else.
Reading now that he was the director of Atonement means he is now my least favorite director. I would rather watch a Uwe Boll movie, because at least I could get some enjoyment out of ripping on it. I didn't just dislike Hanna and Atonement, I was angry after sitting through them. That almost never happens to me.

Sitting through the mess that was Atonement, I really couldn't believe how it got the good reviews it did. The story is ridiculous right off the bat, with coincidences and forced plotting that wouldn't be out of place on Three's Company. Then any sense of forward momentum is brought to a screeching halt by a long, dull trip through the war where NOTHING actually happens. What happened to the story I was watching? Sure it made me roll my eyes, but it's at least a story. In place of a that I now have to sit through an extended shot of the battlefield that does absolutely -nothing- in moving the story forward? I literally felt like I was watching the director jerk himself off at my expense.

I am not a huge fan of period films, especially those about upper-class English socialites, so I had no interest in seeing it. But when I eventually did, I came away very impressed with the two lead performances and with Wright's direction.
It sounds like you just weren't invested in the story, and nothing beyond that could've helped the matter. Thats understandable. Conversely, I bought into the storyline and found myself invested in the tale of a young girl who selfishly, jealously throws a young man's life under the bus and then spends the rest of her life trying to atone for her sins.
As for that amazing extended take, I disagree that it does nothing to move the plot forward. Thats like saying establishing and exterior shots do nothing for the plot of a film. Wright was trying to show the scope, devastation and macabre of the war and what it had wrought on the country. It was a visual representation of James McAvoy's character being in so far over his head, in a living hell due to the false accusations Ronan's character had made against him. That shot had PLENTY of purpose, if you were looking at it like I was.

I've read some of the same complaints about the blu-ray of The Hills Have Eyes blu-ray as people state that it doesn't look better if at all than the original 2 disc DVD that Anchor Bay put out some years ago. Unless they went back to the original 16mm negative like was done with Evil Dead and Texas Chainsaw Massacre, I really don't see how they can do much better than what is already out there.
I've already got the original Anchor Bay blu-ray of Hellraiser (which looks amazing) as part of a double feature set with Children of the Corn. DVDbeaver stated that the transfer on the new Image isn't the same transfer as the original Anchor Bay one as the bit rates are lower and there is some print damage not in the Anchor Bay blu.
I had the Hellbound: Hellraiser 2 blu-ray ordered for a while and hopefully it is a true hi-def master and not the DVD upconvert as several people have been alleging that Image pulled. I should have it by this weekend and I also hope that it has all of the extras from the 20th anniversary DVD release a few years back.
If these aren't true HD masters on the Midnight Series blu-rays, than everybody at Image needs to be ashamed of themselves and I won't buy any else from them again!

When I was a teenager, my next door neighbour was an actress and I was thrilled when she told me she was starring in Hellraiser II as "the skinless woman".
Heh, I remember going to the cinema when this was released just to see her brief cameo on the mattress.
Kudos to Kenneth Cranham who owns this film...

I generally like period pieces, but couldn't stand Atonement. Talk about having the wrong name attached to a movie. Here's a little girl who literally gets somebody KILLED ... and then goes on to be rich and famous. At no point did she have atonement. At least not in the movie I watched. One of the most frustrating movies I've ever seen. Also, I agree with jimmy_009, Hanna quickly fell apart.

...when you realize she's in a completely unrealistic Super Villain lab buried in the middle of nowhere. Suddenly you're not in the real world, you're on a set that's one laser shy of being M. Bison's lair from the Street Fighter movie. All of the plot holes and dangling threads don't help either. Like why Eric Bana has a button to press to begin with. The lack of growth on the part of Hanna when dumped with a "foster family" for WAY to much of the movie's running time. Then the family is just abruptly gone from the movie with no further explanation. Cate Blanchett and her ridiculous accent and hammy character. The clown guy at the amusement park. This movie had way too many cringe worthy moments. Absolutely terrible. I'd say the music was the only redeeming quality.

She atones by writing the story that Macavoy's character survives the war and gets to be with knightley's character. I thought it was kinda poignant, myself. But then, I'm a sucker for that romantic shit.

I find it absolutely hilarious, and a bit telling, that Coolhandjuke's flatulence problem is more entertaining than another Harry DVD review of movies he actually hasn't seen yet. Most of his review now go into dark pervy territory showing us Harry's fetishes, and just copy/paste the features on the back of the DVD case or Amazon.com page. Has it always been like this?

How the hell it garnered so much support is fucking beyond me.
The relationship elements between Charles and Erik were great, as were the Nazi hunting elements. The movie actually had me at the start, but then it turns to shit.
Shaw was simply Magneto 1.0.
The action scenes ranged from good (Azazel's assault on the CIA compound) to fucking horrendously bad (that silly bitch Angel and her "flight fight" with Banshee).
And once again they pissed away an awesome opportunity to use the REFERENCE MATERIAL which is light years better than the horseshit they served up. The Hellfire Club could have been amazing, but then, the Phoenix storyline could have been epic too.
Fuck this pathetic movie right in it's ass. It's trash.